James Whitcomb Riley Poems

James Whitcomb RileyJames Whitcomb Riley (Greenfield, Indiana, October 7, 1849 - July 22, 1916) was
an American writer and poet. Known as the "Hoosier Poet" and the "Children's
Poet," he started his career in 1875 writing newspaper verse in Indiana dialect
for the Indianapolis Journal. His verse tended to be humorous or sentimental,
and of the approximately one-thousand poems that Riley published, over half are
in dialect. Claiming that “simple sentiments that come from the heart” were the
secret of his success, Riley satisfied the public with down-to-earth verse that
was "heart high." Although Riley was a bestselling author in the early 1900s and
earned a steady income from royalties, he also traveled and gave public readings
of his poetry. His favorite authors were Robert Burns and Charles Dickens, and
Riley himself befriended bestselling Indiana authors such as Booth Tarkington,
George Ade and Meredith Nicholson. Many of his works were illustrated by the
popular illustrator Howard Chandler Christy.
Tomb of James Whitcomb Riley at Crown Hill Cemetery in IndianapolisRiley loved
children, but he never had any of his own; he also never married. For the last
twenty-three years of his life he lived on Lockerbie Street, near downtown
Indianapolis, as a paying guest of his friends Major and Mrs. Charles Holstein.
Indiana honored Riley after his death in 1916 by burying him in Crown Hill
Cemetery in Indianapolis. The site of his grave is atop Strawberry Hill, the
highest point in Indianapolis, offering a spectacular view of the city. Although
Riley's poetry has fallen out of popularity, a few of his poems, such as Little
Orphant Annie and Lockerbie Street, continue to be taught in schools in Indiana.